[eisej]

Alright. It's been two weeks and my 2000 Sportsman 500 still has no spark. After replacing the whole ignition system (ignition coil, stator with pickup coil, plug, wire, CDI, voltage regulator, solenoid) I still have no spark. I checked the ETC and it's working fine. I even adjusted the cable a bit. Why I am posting is because I just bought this about three weeks ago and it has only ran for the first week. Of course no kind of warranty as it was a private sale. It happened while I was plowing. I just finished a short run at the end of my driveway and it died. Would crank but wouldn't turnover.

I am thinking it has to be either the left handlebar switch housing or the ignition switch. Here's one last key detail. When the ignition switch is off I do not get connectivity between any black and brown (ground) wire. If I turn the ignition on I get connectivity tone between all my ground and black (kill switch) wires. I disconnected the kill switch wires from the CDI as well. Still nothing. I also took off all the plastics and pulled off all the black wire looms and went through as much as possible while putting dielectric grease on every connection possible.

I am desperate honestly as this is becoming a real money pit. Of course this isn't making the wife happy since I planned on bringing in some extra money doing some sub contract plowing with the quad and my two snowblowers.

Any ideas no matter how crazy please post. My two choices right now is take it to a shop for $80 an hour to diagnose or buy a switch housing for $180 from Polaris. Either way I don't think there are any guarantees. I am just at my wits end and really can't afford another costly part. Being electrical parts of course you can't return them.

I also tested all the resistance on the stator, pickup coil, solenoid, etc. Everything is checking out to the specs in the full service manual I have. I was thinking of running another ground but I have solid connectivity on the two grounds as it is.

Thanks for reading.

 

[outlaw44]

Might not be the case on your machine but mine was doing
basically the same thing, only mine I a 800. Behind the stator
cover there is a brass bushing that holds the end of the starter
bendix in place, on mine is was wore and it let the teeth slip
on the flywheel every now and then. The metal shavings collected
on the mag pickup on the flywheel and would not send a signal
For the coil or the injectors to fire. Check it out and maybe this
will help

 

[Bruce!]

Welcome to the board!

 

[eisej]

Thanks for the welcome and the reply. what you mentioned outlaw sounds reasonable and I am going to open up the stator cover again just to take another look at things. You are right though when I first opened up the stator cover the original pickup coil was covered fairly well with steel "dust". No shavings.

I want to mention another detail. Especially given the depth of the problem. I have a "slight" case of ADD. I tend to get focused on something and lose track of things even though I try to be methodical about making a list of things to check. By the time I realize I'm off track it's too late and my methodology goes to hell in a hand basket. My point is that I don't doubt for one second that I may have screwed something else up along the way. I hate electrical issues since one little wire, screw, etc, can blow everything up and you won't know it. Not like doing drywall work. Even though drywall work does bite almost as bad. If anyone wants to question how I did something please don't hesitate. I won't take it personally.

If I find anything I'll post. Thanks again.

 

[Sjjr613]

Try reconnecting the kill switch to the cdi and twin wires together.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

 

[jgue498]

For serious stuff like this, contact OPT

OPT stands for Old Polaris Tech. He's at atvconnection.com

Place your question on the expert part of the site, call him out in your headline posting (Please help OPT! for example), he'll respond pretty quick and knows the bottom line on serious stuff like this. He has helped me and many others plenty. Best of luck, don't despair, this too will pass. :cowboy:

 

[eisej]

Sorry for being ignorant but I don't know which or what twin wires you mean. let me know ans i'll give it a shot.

I decided to take the left switch housing.apart since the wiring diagram shows a diode and a resistor in there. I took pics of the three ohm readings I got. Does anyone know if these are within spec? The resistor.bands are yellow, violet, red, gold. Link to the pics is below.

eisenhauerjason's's Library | Photobucket

 

[eisej]

Jgue. I'll post tonight on atvconnection.com calling OPT for help. I'll paste a link to here to try to keep duplicating info. Thank you very much.

 

[Sjjr613]

Sorry for being ignorant but I don't know which or what twin wires you mean. let me know ans i'll give it a shot.

I decided to take the left switch housing.apart since the wiring diagram shows a diode and a resistor in there. I took pics of the three ohm readings I got. Does anyone know if these are within spec? The resistor.bands are yellow, violet, red, gold. Link to the pics is below.

eisenhauerjason's's Library | Photobucket

Try bypassing the kill swtich. By removing from the it from the cdi it might think that the contact is opened or closed whichever one it is and not allow it to start.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

 

[Sjjr613]

Trace the ones u disconnected from the Cdi. I can't tell exactly which ones but it should be obvious which ones come from the switch

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

 

[eisej]

Outlaw44

I took my stator cover off last night. I posted pics up on my photobucket site (link is above) of my stator and I tried to get a pic of the trigger/pickup coil but I wanted to get back to you and let you know that the pick up coil magnets are clean and my gap between the pickup and the flywheel is still about 1mm.

Here's something I found though. Before I took off the stator cover I thought I would test the output coming from the p/u coil. Please correct me if I am wrong but when you hook up a multimeter to the white and white red leads and pull start you should get some kind of AC voltage output. I had gator clips connected and pull started it and I saw less than a volt of output. I say less than a volt and I mean .1v . I double checked continuity and my gator clips, etc and all seemed right. Is it possible the p/u coil that came with my new stator is bad? If it is I'm curious how the place I got it from which was RMStator.com will deal with it. Just given every places' policy on returning electrical parts.

Today I am going to replace the resistor and the diode in the left handlebar housing. I bought what I believe are the right diode and resistor. I say "believe" because the band colors on the original resistor and it's tough to tell whether the third band is red, brown, or maybe even black. The resistor has been in that switch housing for 13years and is faded. Not to mention every manufacturer colors are not identical to another manufacturers colors. But I'll put these new ones in, see if it works, if not, put the old ones back in. If it does work (I'm praying to the ATV gods that it will) maybe this could be a solution for Polaris owners who have a $200 switch go bad. Go to radio shack and buy 50 cents worth of resistor and diode, solder and it's fixed. Not that simple but close.

This is just getting exhausting. I am seriously starting to consider selling this thing for parts on Ebay. I think it's the only way I'll be able to recover my money.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Sjjr613]

Did u try bypassing the kill switch rather than disconnecting it??

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

 

[eisej]

I have not tried that yet. I was waiting to see if what I posted about actually cutting the wires is what you meant. If it is I'll try it out.

 

[Sjjr613]

Yes, join the cut wires together and try to start it.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

 

[eisej]

Just a quick update the diode and resistor test within spec.

 

[eisej]

I Believe..... in miracles and the matrix now

It's running. I've been working on it non stop for the past couple of days. I was getting ready to setup a momentary switch to bypass the handlebar switch when, while disconnecting the battery, I saw the positive cable was a little loose. I thought I would put some dielectric grease on it and took it off. This whole time I did not know that the small red cable going into the boot had a completely separate connection and was not soldered to the main positive cable. The small cable was goes to my ignition switch and the voltage regulator. While toning out the line it kept disconnecting and giving outrageous resistance. The end was corroded badly. I thought this was it. This made sense. It could of grounded out my voltage regulator, etc. I could not believe it still wouldn't give me spark after replacing the connector. A pic of the corroded connector is below.

I decided to put the seat on and see if I could use the quad as a couch instead of an ATV. In a previous post I mentioned that I was confident I did something else wrong. I decided to start back tracking the ignition from head to tail. I put in the old CDI module, hit the electric start, and BANG ! ! ! She backfired. It was so loud I thought I put a rod through the block. I peaked around the front tire and no oil and I could smell exhaust fumes and not just the smell of fuel. My wife came running because the backfire shook the house. The exhaust smell gave me hope. I checked for spark and it was strong. Put the plug back in and she turned right over and fired up.

I don't know for sure but this is my theory. The ignition cable was loose, blew out my voltage regulator while I was plowing my driveway. BUT due to my fault again I must have blew up the new CDI before I replaced the voltage regulator and found the corroded wire.

First to everyone, thank you. Electrical is never easy but what the key was being able to talk it out to people who understood which all the people that read and posted replies. Thank you. Saying it and thinking it give totally different perspectives.

Next for anyone that runs into an electrical (AC or DC) issue with anything you have to be methodical. I knew that but I didn't know how methodical. I'm talking crazy, mad scientist, OCD, methodical. Diagrams, hang them on walls, document what you've done, the details of what happened. Honestly I wish I would have did some sort of voice recording while I was working on it. I have no doubt I would have found the issue a lot sooner.

Thanks everyone. And remember to believe... when it comes to electrical issues.

 

[Sjjr613]

Thats awsome. You must be happy!! Get it all back together and take it for a rip

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk